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Magellan

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Everything posted by Magellan

  1. Are you guys under a permanent waiver for your 30-60-90 requirements?
  2. Thread Revival Anyone know what the current ops tempo is at the 3rd and 33rd SOS? Right now the Creech MQ-1 and MQ-9 squadrons for the most part are all 5-1-2 with 8 hour shifts. The 15th made a very misguided attempt to go to 6-3 with 6 hour shifts that failed, and their consolation prize is now instead of a 5-1-2 they work 6-3 with 8 hour shifts. I think the miscalculation here is that Whiteman is an "island" where 90% of the officers lived on base making shorter days and more of them much more feasible. Whereas Creech on the other hand requires a 1.5 hour commute round trip every day you have to go to work. This makes it much more painful to call guys in to fill the gaps when there is a last minute short fall.
  3. The alarm is rather unimpressive when strapped to your wrist if you are looking at the face when it goes off. However, since the sound comes out of the notches in the side of the case it is quiet effective if your arm is hanging by your side, or if you have it laying flat on the night stand next to you. Plus for a bunch of hard of hearing military pilots 80dB isn't that insane. http://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/Training/PPETrain/dblevels.htm
  4. The original charge was no doubt just for the baseline watch. The additional charge I am assuming looks to be if you order and additional band, and maybe shipping etc. The total cost looks about right by my math.
  5. Rule 1a. Don't be that guy!
  6. Are we talking a metric shit tonne or an english shit ton? Do tell. Truth Data...perhaps http://nation.time.com/2013/04/02/costly-flight-hours/ Edit: Found article with info 69 seconds after posting sarcastic comment.
  7. Like other have said it depends. They make money by charging a refinance fee. In my case I have a mortgage at 4.75%, but the rate at which I am paying it down makes refinancing pointless. I would suggest using something like this... http://www.bankrate....calculator.aspx Put in your current parameters and look at what your total REMAINING interest paid will be over the course of the loan for your current loan will be. Then compare that to the total cost of interest for the refinance and add the refinance fee as well. This will give you your answer.
  8. If that code sets their nuclear capabilities back by a few months/years. HELL YES. How many more Americans will be coming home maimed, in body bags, or not at all if Iran becomes nuclear capable and decides to start using them? You have the balls to call someone a retard on the internet, and talk about having rage enough to throttle them through a monitor. Wow we got ourselves a tough guy with an over inflated sense of self-righteousness. I guess you would rather have Iran with nukes, terrorists with safe havens, or downed pilots in countries where UAVs fly captured and paraded through the internet/media than to offend the sensibilities of those that don't understand the importance of the actions this medal would be awarded for.
  9. Copy, you are a subject matter expert perfectly entitled to tell Panetta that he was dead wrong.
  10. This is interesting...considering one of the justifications for the medal was to be an alternative to the Air Medal. That said I don't think they considered the backlash that would come from veterans groups viewing it as an attack on Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts. I could be wrong on this one, but I think Hagel will stand behind Panetta's decision on this medal.
  11. Maybe I am wrong here, but based on the O-6 select list that just came out I would say the Air Force is doing a pretty damn good job of promoting the right people....at least in my corner of the AF.
  12. You let the enemy see your credit card statement? You have lost the battle before you even started.
  13. Air Force Aviation is much more competitive. Compared to the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard I would say the Air Force has the best talent coming in the door, but that is just my opinion. This in turn means that the people you are working with and for are generally higher talent individuals. Then there is the life style...people gripe about the Air Force having some shitty locations. But there are some shitty places to fly airplanes for the NAVY as well. NAS China Lake and NAS Yuma are just 2 that come to mind. Additionally, the Air Force revolves around a flight line. The NAVY mindset revolves around subs, surface warfare, and carriers. So as an aviator your upward potential is somewhat limited from the start, because to the Navy you are no more or less important that SWOs or sub guys. As far as bases most NAVY bases look like they haven't seen any new construction since about 1970, where as most AF bases that we are currently using have torn down and rebuilt the gym 3 times since 1970. Family life. AF wins hands down. For as shitty as the AF family life can be I have yet to talk to a NAVY family that has it better. The reason everyone is mocking you in this thread is because you only have to talk to 1 or 2 people with anything between their ears to get all of the answers I just gave you. Which makes the decision of which one you want to sign up for clearly obvious, but as you said in your opening line it sounds like you probably competed for the Air Force and were found lacking so anchors away matey!
  14. You are stupid, and need to spout off on the internet less and do your job more. Aerial Achievement Medals are NOT Air Medals. This medal will not be handed out like candy, and the guys doing the job that will be eligible for it aren't clamoring for recognition. They are just guys going to work and doing the JOB. So if a guy gets in a fire fight after an IED explosion and saves his buddies lives he may get a BS with V device. However, if an RPA unit manages to tirelessly track someone for days to months that is recruiting IED enplacers/suicide bombers/jihadists, training them, coordinating funding, and equiping them to go take part in these fire fights, and then they manage to kill this HVT thus crippling the enemies ability to stage the kind of attacks that would prevent guys from needing to be in a situation to be eligible for a BS with V in the first place they should go completely unrecognized? As my Grandpa who served in WWII would say "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Why would you be butt hurt over handing out a medal that is lower than the DFC if what they are doing is important enough to prevent countless BS with V devices from being handed out or more importantly protecting innocent civilians who are being targeted OFF OF THE BATTLEFIELD. America isn't about fair fights...we are about one sided victories. If we have figured out how to find and eliminate our enemies abroad without having to put boots on the ground maybe we should consider the value in that rather than branding the people who are doing the job as unworthy. Especially considering most of them don't want to be doing that job in the first place, but they suck it up and honor their end of the agreement with the Air Force.
  15. Dude it will affect everyone so it won't really matter. If you want a higher PCSM score just go spend the cash and stock pile civilian flying hours.
  16. I would gladly pay MN taxes to have the schools, public infrastructure (ALMOST no toll roads never mind about that one bridge), industry, and higher educational opportunities that MN has to offer. Between myself and my sugar momma we pay plenty in taxes, but what we pay is a pittance for the services and stability our government provides.
  17. http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/12/air-force-reaper-crash-nellis-120512w/ Best part was hearing what the "Senior Master Staff Sergeant" had to say. Great job Air Force times...
  18. You should demand an apology from that 0-5 out of principle and report the results back to us.
  19. Unfortunate, but hey here is the picture of the gal that brought down an american hero.
  20. Unless they re-catted to stay RPAs some of them are starting to get assignments out of Creech.
  21. The decisions that Generals make on a daily basis do very little to affect my day to day life/work schedule, but maybe your squadron is run by General Officers. Mine is run by Captains, Majors, and Lt. Cols most of whom are under 20 years and still hoping for at least one more promotion before retirement for the most part. This limits their willingness to put their foot down and take a stand when it comes to taking care of their people, because they have something to lose by not keeping their bosses happy.
  22. Time will tell. Possibly longer initial service commitments for one, healthcare benefits for military members with family medical issues, the desire to serve ones country, this list can go on forever. But what would happen if dudes were in a position to stand up for what is right vs what will get them promoted if they weren't gambling it on an all or nothing retirement? Yes, but you would see a lot more of it. No but it is much more flexible. If they need to cut costs immediately and going forward they can reduce the size of the force. Once people are on a pension they are always on that pension. Switching to a system like this would force military members to be financially savvy and make good decisions or suffer the consequences. My point was people will quit and go somewhere else if they don't feel adequately compensated.
  23. Has anyone stopped to consider the potential positive effects a change might have on the military? 1. You won't have turds hanging around just for retirement. High year tenure rules will take care of the turds that are still hanging around because they are institutionalized. 2. Different career fields will be able to be paid differently in the form of bonuses to retain the career fields that are needed. 3. Pay will have to mirror or exceed that of the civilian sector in order to retain people. i.e. to keep a Lt. Col. type in a high demand career field around they will probably have to pay them around 200K+ a year if they strip the 20 year retirement, while senior enlisted will probably have to get paid around 100K+ a year. 4. You end a potential "entitlement" program that everyone likes to target, because they are argued as being unsustainable. The thing they fail to realize is if they make the pay comparable to civilian jobs you will have to make the jobs comparable. Last time I checked very few civilian jobs require regular 120-365 day foreign business trips, forced relocation every 2-4 years, and the potential of being put in harms way. When it comes to armed forces you get what you pay for.
  24. So the F-15C will now be able to take the role of a Predator, Reaper, MC-12, etc?
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